Before Supper SWEETS

The proposed regional authority happens to coincide with the development of Spokane Valley’s “Homeless Action Plan.” Haley says the Valley plans to continue working on its own plan, regardless of whether or not they eventually sign on to the regional effort.

Working Together

Despite the delayed start and critical edits, Cooley says he’s more optimistic than he’s ever been and thinks the feedback so far has been constructive.

On Monday, the county commissioners took another look at the joint statement. They had a few more minor edits, but overall they seemed pleased with the new lan- guage and sent the revised copy to the city again. Beggs says he expects the Spokane City Council to pass a resolution endorsing the statement Thursday.

The Valley council members are in Olympia this week, so they won’t get a chance to take action on the joint statement until their Feb. 24 meeting at the earliest. Haley says she’ll probably agree to sign the statement, assuming the language properly reflects her concerns about a lack of clarity.

Beggs hopes the Valley gets on board.

“It’ll work way better with them at the table for the due diligence, but as long as the city and the county are on, I’m confident we can move forward,” Beggs says.

Cooley says the joint statement was limited to the region’s three biggest jurisdictions to avoid “mission creep.” Cooley is still meeting with smaller municipalities like Cheney, Airway Heights and other West Plains towns, and he hopes they’ll sign the statement and join the effort once the big three are on board.

After the 90-day period is over, the volunteer group will report its findings to the local leaders and make a recommendation for which structure the regional entity should take. That’s when the real thorny questions will have to be ironed out: How much influence will each jurisdiction have? How much will it cost, and who will pay? If the regional entity wants to build shelters, where will they go?

“That will probably be a dicey day,” Beggs says.

But that’s if the politicians even agree to form the regional entity in the first place. The local jurisdictions might just back out and keep doing their own thing.

Cooley doesn’t think that will happen. He’s optimistic that at least some of the local jurisdictions will be on board. And the ones that aren’t? They’re welcome to sit it out. Once they see how it’s going, Cooley says they’re welcome to change their minds and get in on the action. n nates@inlander.com